The English Bible is a secondary source for Bible study. Originally, the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The overall purpose of these posts is to encourage the study of the Bible in the biblical languages. Copyright, Dennis O. Wretlind, 2013.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Peter’s discussion of a woman’s relationship to her husband
in 1 Peter 3:1-6 causes consternation on the part of many women who reject a relevant
biblical principle of submission. They perceive it as a negative term, a “put
down” of women.However, a careful
examination of the rhetorical development in verses 5-6 does not support this
conclusion. In fact, submission is a positive and beautiful aspect of the
husband/wife relationship.

The rhetorical development of the passage is observed first by
use of the correlative adverbs “in this way” (οὗτως) . . . ” just
as” (ὡς) as translated in the New American
Standard Bible (NASB). Second, Peter’s argument follows a general
to specific pattern—“holy women” and “Sarah.” Third, the holy women of old
adorned themselves inwardly (cf. v. 4) by “being submissive to their own
husbands.” Submission, the central issue in the passage, is reinserted from
verse 1 but left undefined in the general clause of verse 5. In the more specific
clause of verse 6 speaking of Sarah, submission is defined by two things—obedience
and respect.

One Old Testament example of Sarah’s obedience can be
found in Genesis 18:6 when she obeyed Abraham’s request to prepare a meal for
his visitors. This correlates with the general Old Testament understanding that
the husband is the “head of the household” with leadership authority (Genesis
3:16). The respect aspect of 1 Peter 3 arises from the word “lord” used
in both the Old and New Testaments (אדוןin Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew and English
Lexicon, p. 11; κύριος in Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and
Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 3rd ed., p. 578).
It is a term of respect used by one person speaking to or about an authority
figure. Genesis 18:12 records Sarah’s use of this word speaking of Abraham.

These Old Testament reflections transfer into the present
sphere of husband/wife relationships by Peter’s conclusion in verse 6, “and you
have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by
any fear” (NASB). Here are two extensions of Sarah’s obedience
and respect responses to Abraham—“doing what is right” and not “being
frightened by any fear.”

An adjusted NASB translation of “doing what is right,”
stemming from one Greek word (ἀγαθοποιοῦσαι), simply means “doing good.” The second
NASB phrase, “without being frightened by any fear,” requires some
adjustments as well so as not to misconstrue Peter’s intent.

This Greek phrase literally translated “and not fearing any
fear” (καὶ μὴ φοβούμεναιμηδεμίανπτόησιν) establishes the second aspect of submission being introduced
with “and” (not included in the NASB translation). The last word in this phrase (πτόησιν) is classified syntactically as a cognate accusative of the inner object (Wallace, Greek Grammar
Beyond the Basics, p. 189), simply meaning that it restates and focuses
the intended idea of the verbal to which it relates, in this case the
participle “fearing” (φοβούμεναι).

The participle root has two distinct meanings: (1) To have respect, so used in verse 2
where the wife is told that the husband may be saved as they behold the wife’s
chaste and respectfulbehavior towards him, and (2) To have fear, being afraid. In verse 6 Peter
desired the participle to be understood different from the way in which he used
the root word in verse 2. In other words, so as not to confuse his readers as
to the change in meaning he intended at verse 6, Peter inserted a cognate accusative of the inner object using
a term that cannot be confused with respect but can only mean to be
afraid. Thus, the wives are told that they are not to live in fear of their husbands. This is the respect
aspect of the two-pronged submission idea that can be literally translated “not
giving way to fear.” Translations that add contextually foreign concepts of
“terror” or “intimidation” do not take into account Peter’s lexical reason for
including this unique and unusual term. The negatively constructed phrase, “not giving
way to fear,” really does define what genuine respect is for the wife—living
with her husband fearlessly believing him to be good who would not knowingly do
her harm.

A logical diagram of the above observations may help the
understanding: Submission = Obedience and Respect; Obedience = Doing Good; Respect = Exhibiting No Fear

Submission of the wife to the husband as developed by Peter shines
a light on what brought her to the altar to begin with—to do good for her chosen
husband treating him with respect. To paraphrase the practical import of the
passage, “Submit to your husband; keep the honeymoon current!” Suggesting that
submission is a “put down” on women totally misreads Peter’s text and injects
negativity into what God designed to be positively beautiful!

Not to be accused of one-sidedness, however, the husband too
has a responsibility to “keep the honeymoon current!” Peter deals with the
husband side of the marriage relationship in verse 7 wherein it can be
unequivocally shown that his responsibilities are as great if not greater than
that of his wife. But this will be another blogspot! Keep tuned in!

About Me

My expertise is in Hebrew and Greek
which I have taught for three decades at the graduate level. My passion is the accurate translation and interpretation of the Bible based on the biblical languages, and to this end I post these articles.